The Lost Hearts
by crestofawesome165
Summary: Just because FanFiction seems to help me focus and I've got a project of my own going, I've created this, having recently obtained Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMix. Enjoy it.
1. Kari's Path I

**A/N: **Needed a distraction, simple as. Kingdom Hearts had piqued my intrigue and creativity for the first time in a good while.**  
**In the hallowed times long since passed, an ancient power existed, giving rise to all things, and keeping serenity and peace paramount within its warmth and gentle embrace. This power, in time, came to be known as Light. Light was powerful and revered by all, and scarcely bid pleasantries with those who doubted its power. However, with time, Light became nothing but a shell of itself, and it became a mere power, bought and traded by those who practiced the ancient ways, known as magic.  
Light was abused by these people, sought as a way to conquer and enslave. This was not what Light was bore for, and so as punishment, it bore a twin, known as the Dark. It took all shape and form imaginable, and hid within the once-innocent shadows, awaiting its time, but it found its place within the savage respite the Light had found – the heart of the living.  
They both passed on through the ages, but now, only two remain with the powers in their hearts. Only two, who have claimed defenders of their own, preparing throughout the ages without realising for the battle that must be waged between two that ought not exist at once.

**KARI**

* * *

_We are the chains that hold progress still.  
But without us, they can't live!  
You're right. But their choice is made.  
The Light inside me is what their choice ought to be… everyone has to choose Light in the end!  
Kari, the Light has failed before. The Light is what has caused this. Now it is my turn to set things straight.  
But you can't do this! Please!  
Time itself has abandoned us now. I must do what you cannot. You're begging only delays the fate we both share, but only one of us can have.  
Who are you, really?  
I'm-_

'Kari?'  
Her eyes opened wide, and she was herself once again. Lost in the confines of her mind, the light of the sun beating down upon them all was too much, and she had to shield her face. It allowed her to wipe the sweat from her face discreetly.  
'Kari?'  
'Mm?' she put as sweetly as she could, despite herself. Davis seemed completely at a loss as to what she had been daydreaming about, probably as it was the third time she had done it that day alone. 'Sorry, were you saying something?'  
'I was asking you what was wrong,' he put flatly. 'This is the big day of the year, y'know. I was a little worried's all.'_  
_'Sorry, Davis, everyone… I think I picked a bad time to feel a little sick.'  
'Don't worry about it,' Tai reassured her brightly, patting her on the shoulder and smiling broadly. 'Probably that cold going around – remember mom got it this morning? Nearly sneezed into the eggs! Couldn't tell if dad was worried about her or trusting what he was eating!'  
'Tai,' Sora moaned jokingly, '_really_?'  
Kari and the others laughed. Tai was always the leader of the group in all things, be it sports, saving two worlds, handling their problems or just generally being there for whatever they needed him for, and still he found time to try for humour. She had always seen Tai as the perfect big brother for this, and the fact that he seemed so collected.  
They had all gathered there, as they had done for two years since the fall of the dark entity known as MaloMyotismon. Since then, they had been separated from their fated protectorate, the Digital World, where creatures known as Digimon live in peace thanks to the sacrifice they made for them, having to surrender their partners when the gates sealed up globally.  
That had hit them all hard, but in two years they had toughened and remembered the good times with their lost friends, rather than the sadness that followed their journey's end.  
In Odaiba Park, they had been extremely sneaky, as Kari remembered, by entering days after the separation when everyone was still celebrating the Digimon's unexplained arrival, rampage and disappearance and planted a tree seed, a courtesy of a grateful Gennai, their friend and carer of the Digital World.  
It had been the seed of a Cherrymon, and Kari remembered what their friend had said about it, that it would grow tall and strong in little time, and it would resist all attempts to uproot it, giving them a constant mark that they had done their part admirably, and that time did not touch some memories.  
For the second time, the group formerly known as Digidestined were gathered around the sprouting tree, which was indeed growing faster than a normal tree, but was still only to around knee-height. For an hour, they had talked of the lost times, but they had all trailed off toward the final battle for two worlds, as the all too fresh feelings of leaving their partners for good was too much. Even the safety and continued existence of the worlds just wasn't enough to soothe the pain Kari still felt in her heart for that cat partner of hers.  
Not one person at her school had come close to matching her level of friendship with Gatomon. Not Yolei, not Cody, not TK and certainly not Davis, who was a little nosy to be treated as close as her other friends, not that she would tell him that – it would break him, and she knew it.  
'Y'know what I miss?' Davis's voice came to her on this thought, and she realised where she was in the circle of friends massed around the growing tree once more. 'Veemon was cool an' all, but when he became Flamedramon or Raidramon… well, it was just awesome!'  
Mimi made a small sniff, and Matt instantly chided, 'Smooth move, genius.'  
'Oh… er… sorry, Mimi.'  
'Hey, come on now,' Sora complained, her boyfriend's shoulders slouching at her call. 'Be nice. It's not Davis's fault, you know.'  
'I know that,' Matt grumbled, his steely blue eyes looking at the small tree between them all. 'Gabumon and the others would've told me the same thing, and they'd be right. But it's not been easy. We all know that, so why talk about it?'  
'Because we can't move on with our lives if we just bite each other's heads off instead of talking about it,' she countered smartly, earning a defeated grunt. 'C'mon, guys, we were all awkward about it last year. Isn't two years enough to talk about it?'  
Nobody met her searching eyes, and Kari herself looked away in Matt's brother's direction, a usual habit she had picked up from her first days in the Digital World. But there was no strength to be shared, only a pained look from the stinging loss of his own friend.  
'I guess not,' Tai said, changing the subject and lifting Kari's spirits immediately. 'How's school treating you guys? I haven't really bothered that much with that stuff… um… how old are you all, anyway?'  
'Tai!' Kari scolded, feeling heat creep up her neck.  
'It's a way to start a conversation!'  
'Ahem,' Ken cleared his throat to cut in, but did it in his ever-so-polite manner that would go unnoticed by anyone but them. 'Well, I just turned fourteen. Yolei did about a month ago and Davis should be coming up soon. Cody, how old are you?'  
The short boy's eyes went wide. Kari stopped herself chuckling – he would always think that they would forget about him, and his reaction was always the same.  
'Oh, I'm twelve now,' he mumbled.  
'Oh, so you'll be… what is it?'  
'Junior high,' Matt pinched the bridge of his nose irritably. Tai snapped his fingers appreciatively. 'That cold… I think I'm getting it like Kari is.'  
'I'm fine, really.'  
She didn't like to lie, but when others worried about her more than themselves, as Tai had proven in their adventures, she would naturally do it, and then feel terrible in silence for it. She looked about the group, hoping no one had seen, Joe looking suspicious but otherwise indifferent to her lie. She knew he could keep a secret, being the oldest of them all and the most trusting.  
Perhaps that was why Mimi was looking at him every now and again. Joe had become a valued listener to her problems, and Kari felt that there was more to it that nervous Joe hadn't noticed yet. It made her happy that they were at least trying to move on with their lives, in some small way, at least.  
'Are you alright?' Sora leaned in toward Matt's face, and Kari averted her eyes, feeling odd at the sight. 'You look a little pale.'  
'I have a goddess in front of me,' he said coolly. 'Course I'd be pale.'  
Sora made a funny noise, like a hiccup. She must have had a flush worse than Kari did, and that would make her as red as her fiery hair and often her temper, things which Kari, Yolei and Mimi saw as the strength of the girls in the group; unspoken though it was, Sora was the second mother to them all in a sense.  
When she finally dared, Kari turned back, feeling a knot twist inside of her; Matt and Sora were hugging tightly, and she was not the only one pretending to be interested in the surroundings. Why her eyes went directly to Tai wasn't a secret, but he seemed to be controlling himself well enough; she was the only one he had told, after all. It wouldn't be good to lunge at Matt.  
'I love you,' she heard Sora whisper.  
'I love you too.'  
She had definitely heard that – a small croak of agony in his whisper back. It was small, but she would notice it anywhere; Wizardmon, a Digimon she owed a life debt to, had the same note in his voice when he asked how she and Gatomon were instead of telling them his pains and fears and regrets before he had died for them.  
Such a small, inconsequential thing, and yet that note was burned into her mind forever. She noticed it without trying, and she watched Matt bury Sora's head gently against his shoulder, his face screwing up in silent pain while the others pretended to be elsewhere.  
_Oddly familiar._  
Kari shivered and spun around to look behind her, but nothing stood behind where she was sat apart from the pavement and road in the distance, out of the park. Many with facemasks walked on their own way, so where had she heard-?  
'Kari?'  
Davis had gotten to a knee by the time she had looked back at him, and this time he looked in a pressing mood.  
'What's wrong? C'mon, you can tell me.'  
'Tell _us_,' TK input jocularly. 'What's with the look, Davis?'  
'You can tell me an' by extension us.'  
'Close enough, I suppose.'  
'It's been such a long time since we've seen you, Mimi!'  
Yolie, being as dense as possibly can be, changed the subject entirely, rolling her eyes at Davis and not TK. Kari always put this down to her disliking him, but the same could be said for Sora and Tai, and yet they were closer than any of the others might have suspected.  
'I know, right?' Mimi clapped her hands together and cast them to indicate all of them. 'I got mom and dad's permission to come a couple of days ago! They were being so picky, saying that I was nearly killed here by the DarkTyrannomon and saying it was for my own good!' she pouted, her cheeks puffing up. 'I mean, I get it but still, you're all my friends!'  
'They were just worried about you, Mimi,' Izzy told her, speaking up for the first time. Kari had noticed that he had been lost in thought, staring at the developing tree between them.  
'I know they are! But I'm sixteen now! I really don't see the problem!'  
'A sixteen year old facing a giant dinosaur isn't exactly a fair match, Izzy. Mimi would've messed him up.'  
It was uncommon for Matt to make a joke, but when he did, it had a dark tone to it that only demanded unnerved giggles and Mimi to go as red as Sora was. Kari noted his eyes getting a little unfocussed, and so he hid away behind his palm.  
'I think I'll have to cut it short for now, guys,' he said quietly, lifting himself to his feet. 'I'll see you for the meal later. It'll be on me.'  
'You'll regret that,' Kari couldn't help herself, 'Tai can eat all of Japan's food himself.'  
She could feel his glare at the side of her head, but basked in the laughs she was getting from them all, a distraction from the vengeful brother across from her.  
'I think I'll do just fine, Kari,' the blonde smiled and then regarded TK, 'and I'm trusting you to manage it this time.'  
Kari narrowed her eyes in confusion; trust TK with what? Why was his face red?

Hours dragged on with the stories of the Digital World as their hooks, and they knew it had been a good anniversary of the day they had separated Earth and its digital counterpart. Kari was sure that her heart couldn't feel lighter with happiness. Everyone had been there.  
The year before had not been the same, what with Joe and Izzy cancelling last minute for their own reasons, Joe taking his exams for university and having to study, and Izzy saying he had discovered something of interest in his crest, although he later said he found nothing at all important.  
Kari stood in the middle of her room, fixated on the two dresses laid carefully atop her bed and lost in wonder and deliberation. One was white as snow with glittering sequins, the other black as the night sky in winter. It had been ten minutes since she had begun, and she was no closer to a decision than before.  
The wooden floor had actually been cold when she had stepped inside in cold February winds outside, but now her feet were welcomed by heat from her time spent in one place. She had not even drawn the curtain over the door to the terrace, the lights in the surrounding apartment buildings flashing on themselves as time went on without her.  
There was a soft rapping at her door, and through it entered her mother, who in her eyes was the most beautiful and clever mother there ever was beyond compare. She had that talent of seeing through Kari without issue or words, and one glance to the dresses and she nodded, understanding.  
'The white one,' she said quickly, sighing. 'Honestly, I thought you were doing your homework or something, but you've been here so long for this.'  
'Mom, I told you – Tai and I are going to the dinner – the anniversary, remember?'  
Her mother's face fell.  
'Oh… of course, _that_… are you sure you want to, how do I put this… remember all that?'  
A hot prickle came inside of Kari's throat.  
'Excuse me?'  
'That madness was beyond me, Kari…' she whispered. 'I'm still being taxed for repairs for the first and second time those monsters appeared. And I have heard you when you're having a nightmare.'  
'What do you mean, mom?'  
'"Wizardmon", was it?'  
Kari's heart sank like a stone, the only sound separating her room from like a mausoleum being her mother's sickly cough.  
'Kari, I think enough's enough, don't you? Tai as well; you two need to focus on your homework, not monsters that destroyed our home years ago. He's due for college with his soccer scholarship and you're bound for exams soon enough.'  
She had never heard such firmness in her mother's voice before. She pretended to look away, defeated, but smiled to herself, knowing her mother well enough to see through a hazy mind set, seeing as she had been laid down much of the day.  
'Alright mom,' she said lightly, 'I'll start studying year-round. But today is special.'  
'Kari-'  
'You were right,' Kari said, picking up and holding the white dress up for inspection, 'white suits me, actually.'  
The door closed behind her, and she could do nothing but blink back at it in surprise; was her mother angry?  
The door opened again, and through it came Tai's unruly hair and a cheesy grin he always got whenever (on the rare occasion) their mother was angry with her, not him.  
'What's up?'  
'It's nothing. I'll be out in a few minutes, all right?'  
And like an animation, his head crept back behind the door slowly and he shut it, leaving Kari in peace to change into her dress.  
Minutes later, she emerged with a floating sensation in the pit of her stomach – she had only worn a dress once before to her uncle's wedding long ago, and even then, she had hated the idea of having such a thing on. Perhaps it was the TV shows that were on at weekends, but she always saw dresses as ways to get attention, and not the good kind, if the realm of TV was telling true.  
The first to get a glimpse was Tai, whose eyes immediately fell to her legs, which were a little exposed, the white confines of her dress stopping short of the top of her knee. On instinct, she tried to pull it downward, hopefully stretching it a little more – her face grew warmer each second she felt it resist, and Tai was not looking any happier.  
'Kari, that's a… um… that's a nice dress?'  
'I haven't worn one, but I bought them in case – wait, what's that supposed to mean?'  
She hadn't meant to shout, Miko the cat ceasing her pawing at the couch to look back. She felt so embarrassed it was a wonder steam didn't erupt from her ears.  
Tai shrugged, and Kari envied his ability to just wear a black suit and tie, the very same thing he had taken to prom with some school friend called Kirino. 'Better than saying 'nice shirt', isn't it?'  
Not one for violence, Kari just glared daggers at him and his smile, resisting the urge to throw the couch at him not because it was impossible for her, but because she was too nice to try it.  
'C'mon, Davis's already here.'  
She couldn't help but sigh into her palm, awkwardness forgotten. She kept hidden behind her hand, waiting for her face to cool down when Tai's footsteps left and then doubled up.  
'Whoa! I-I… uh… nice legs, Kari!'  
'Smooth as Togemon, Davis.'  
Kari felt ready to die at that moment if it meant escape, and she hid behind her palm a little while longer.

The restaurant had been lavish, but that seemed common of any place that would be so original as to serve _Indian_ foods of all things in _Japan_. It had recently opened in Odaiba, maybe as a little test for expansionism of a company, or just as a family business testing newer waters abroad. She could care less, her tongue feeling burned for lack of preparation in taking a large bite of curry. It seemed the stuff of legend and mystery in Japan from far away, and it wasn't hard to see why; curry could be a deadly weapon against Myotismon himself judging by her gained experience of it.

After deciding not to trust foreign foods for a while and letting her tongue cool down, she joined in the merriment and chatter of the group. Much of it was the boys awkwardly confessing how the girls all looked stunning in their dresses; although Tai had the misfortune of saying they looked so much different than they did when they first began their adventure.

Mimi had stunned Kari by taking this as a slight against her looks and was currently scolding Tai, her big brother looking at a rare loss for words.

'Alright, alright! I get the point, Mimi!'

'Hmph,' she huffed, folding her arms and looking away from him – curiously in Joe's direction, Kari couldn't help but notice.

'It's getting late for me,' Cody spoke up calmly, getting everyone's attention. 'Should we call it a night?'

'Cody, we still have to hang around the tree, remember?'

He looked to Sora, respect evident on the young boy's face.

'Well, I suppose if we're quick about it… I'm visiting dad's grave tomorrow morning, so I'd like to be early in, if at all possible.'

'You'll be back with time to spare,' she smiled, 'me and Matt just had a thought that we'd all talk about our Digimon instead of avoiding the subject.'

Cody shifted uncertainly in his seat, 'I'm not so sure… Armadillomon didn't leave with a long goodbye, and I've always felt a little uneasy because of it.'

Kari took notice of the silence that fell and clapped her hands together, 'I think it's a great idea!' she turned to Davis, not liking that it was the only way, 'Don't you?'

He straightened up at once, grinning stupidly.

'Y-yeah, I like it! Cody, c'mon!'

'Well… alright.'

'Hey, Ken and I have studying to do tomorrow!'

Davis blinked between Yolei, who had that look that scared Kari a little, and then at Ken, who nodded without meeting his eyes. He looked back to her closest friend in the group.

'No one asked your opinion, Yolei.'

She flared up angrily, 'WHAT DID YOU SAY?'

Perhaps too late, but she noticed that every customer, waiter and even a passer-by outside the window were looking directly at her, heckled by her shouting.

Kari sunk into her seat, wishing dearly that she could melt into it for a moment while her friend sank into her own. Davis was chuckling to himself.

'Shut up,' Yolei grumbled, but he did not. 'I said shut up!'

'Careful now – don't blow your stack,' Matt said in a muffled tone, his mouth hidden by his steepled fingers. 'Not any more, at least.'

Yolei went as red as her dress, and everyone giggled uneasily, the customers around them slow to look away and eat once more. One waiter was slowest of all to pretend he had forgotten, and Kari could see why; he had been covered with the water from the glass he was picking up.

'I'm going to miss this,' Joe laughed sadly, his smile shaky.

'What d'you mean?' Davis chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. 'Miss what?'

'Well, next year I'll be pretty much living at university and I won't make it to the next anniversary,' he was explaining, the laughter fading into nothingness. 'Or the year after that, to be perfectly honest. After that, I'm not even sure I can come see you guys at all, and when I graduate, I'll probably move to Tokyo itself – they have a need of more doctors in that city.'

'You can still see us,' Mimi said bracingly, though Kari heard that familiar undertone of pain she was so tuned to hearing. 'You can see me on your weeks off, can't you?'

He smiled at her, 'Well, I want to follow in my dad's sort of path to do that. He was a heart surgeon and consultant to boot, but he eventually came here to open a private clinic. If I do that, then I can attend the anniversaries and things, but that would take at least ten good years after I graduate with honours, like he did.'

'Can't you do what your brother's doing now?' Ken asked quietly.

'He told me that working in Africa is a lot of work with little reward, but he said it was bad because once you're there, and you see how bad it is, you can't bring yourself to leave. It'd be pretty much the same thing as never seeing you guys.'

'Um… if we're being honest…' everyone turned to Ken, colour rising to his face slightly. 'I'm moving away soon… at least, my mom's thinking about it – she says that those kidnappings Oikawa did worried her, and dad didn't really agree or disagree, so…'

'Ken?' Yolei sounded mortally wounded, and inched closer to him in her seat. 'Are you really leaving?'

'Maybe… I only told Davis since he pressed me, but he said he'd keep it between us.'

'Davis…'

Kari sensed it, like lightning flashing across the table from Yolei's eyes into Davis's, the former leader of the newer Digidestined reeling in his seat, and she didn't blame him; Yolei looked like a demon, ready to pitch a fit.

'You knew, but you didn't tell me?'

'I gave him my word, Yolei!'

'That's rich; an idiot like you saying something mature like that!'

Kari saw Davis straighten up in his chair, a worrying look of dark hate in his eyes.

'What's your problem, you think that you can't get off your high horse and take a train to see him like a normal person would?'

'What's _that_ supposed to mean?'

'It means that you're thinking like an idiot would!'

'"Birds of a feather flock together"!'

Matt was leaning into the table in the corner of Kari's eyes, looking calmest of everyone present.

'First, you just insulted _yourself_ and him, and second, everyone's looking at us.'

'Shut up!'

Yolei had flared up completely, and now left her chair, Ken's weak protests doing nothing to calm her, and even less good as Davis met her in standing tall, looking irate. Even taller was Matt, his pale, sickly complexion mended by red fury, Sora tugging at his sleeve.

'What did you just say to me?' Matt hissed, the customers turning around to see the three.

'I told you to shut up – this is between me and him!'

'There's nothing between me and you, you're just out of your mind!'

'I dare you to say that again!'

'You – Are – Out – Of – Your – Mind – Yolei!'

'Stop it, both of you,' Mimi cried, appearing to be tempting the option to stand up herself. 'And Matt, just calm down!'

'Don't tell me to calm down, princess.'

'Matt!' Sora and Mimi screeched at once, getting to their feet, Joe pulled up by Mimi's surprising strength while he was trying to pull her back down by her shoulders.

Kari's mind seemed to have jammed, and all she could manage to do was flash a look to TK, looking for some sign of strength she could use, arguing ensuing above her. She had seen it coming, but not in the middle of a restaurant – everyone had wanted someone to lash out at for the past two painful years, and today of all days – she felt foolish for not seeing it.

Her eyes began to mist, and she knew she was about to cry, her friends fighting above her.

'Davis, why don't you just listen to me, be the bigger man and sit down while Yolei cools it?' Tai joined in, but his strength as a leader was quickly snapped at by Sora of all people, and he became wounded and angry, and the rowing escalated. 'What d'you mean "mature like Matt"? Sora, he's the dunce who got involved!'

'Don't talk about him like that!'

'I'll talk about him however I like, Love-Girl!'

'Insensitive jerk!'

'Tomboy!'

Sora's face was clouded in Kari's eyes, but when she chanced a look, the girl had turned as red as her hair, throwing insults in Tai's direction which he returned in kind. Only TK, Cody, Ken and technically Joe, who tried to diffuse the situation and was keeping his head, joined Kari in not lashing out with two years of pent up pain and frustration. She felt mad at the others.

And then she felt terrible for thinking so, tears running down her face. Cracks from two years were widening before her, and nobody seemed to notice anyone around them.

'DAVIS, THIS IS ALL _YOUR_ FAULT!'

'SHUT IT! JUST TALK TO KEN ALREADY AND QUIT WIMPING OUT OVER IT!'

'DAVIS!' Yolei squealed angrily, and the arguing raised even more.

Kari felt herself snap inside like a tender branch, and at once she slammed her hands down as hard as she could, and then she cried, 'EVERYONE, BREAK IT UP!'  
Everyone blinked in surprise of her, but then they just squinted, and the girls lifted their hands before their eyes, trying to look down to Kari beyond any shame, but something else entirely – their faces became paler, as did their suits and dresses…

Light took them all, and Kari felt beyond her surprise its warmth and its weightlessness – the restaurant faded about them, but then it became bitterly cold. Everyone was screaming, and soon she realised why she was joining them; the light was smothered by darkness, and their bodies twisted and fell down into the deepest pit, into cold unlike any she had experienced before, and just before everyone vanished into the blackness, Kari saw them dragged by arms of the dark in different directions, and before she could so much as cry out, clueless of what else may be done, the dark took her and smothered her.


	2. Davis's Rebirth I

**A/N: **Beware your fears made into light, for they will bury you with such terrible right.

**DAVIS**

* * *

It felt like he was sinking not into water, but quicksand.

The darkness had wrapped itself around him so tightly it was an uncomfortable blanket, filled with an icy chill unlike anything he had felt before. The screams and cries of the others had faded away, and the cold he tried to battle against in vain had drowned his anger with terrible fear.

Tiny hands were pulling him down further into the blackness, and he could not see anything, eyes opened or not, and air was becoming scarce…

Finally, he felt himself slipping away, a pull at his heart the only thing remaining to feel, which it did as though it was ripped from his chest by a bear, but Davis did not scream – he was losing enough air already. He wasn't sure what to do when his mind began to dull and mist, and before long, darkness took him completely.

But then he felt something warm, grabbing his wrist; suspiciously tight in grip and pulling him, like fingers, not the stubby claws he felt all around him.

There was a blinding flash, and before he could think, Davis was coughing and gasping for air, his eyes readjusting to the light painting the stone beneath him. The air was heavy and hot to taste, but he did not care, every morsel of air in his lungs like food to a starved man.

Slowly, he lifted his head, eyes swimming with colours, but gradually allowing him to see clearly once more. Before him was a water feature, spraying water onto a square of paintings, looking like roses wilting over time. Around him, the stone led up some steps from the empty square he was in, small shops and a hotel to either side of him and behind him a strange, large white tower.

'What is this?' he whispered to himself, not a soul there to hear him, allowing a thought to come to him undisturbed, and so he yelled, 'VEEMON!'

It just had to be the Digital World. That was the only possible explanation. This was not any place he had been to before, but only the Digital World could pull people so suddenly. Tai had told him about how he had fallen into darkness twice returning to the Digital World. Any second now he would burst into hysterics, seeing his reptilian friend for the first time in two arduous years.

But no little blue dragon-esque creature caught his eye. Only the same empty street giving a hollow rebuttal with his own echoed word. He felt his heart go into free-fall within him, and he bit his lip to distract from the disappointing, bitter sting he felt it experience.

'VEEMON!' he shouted again, more desperately still, and still nothing happened. 'Calm down… c'mon, he's gotta be around here somewhere; it's the Digital World!'

His own words failed to lift his spirits, but he began moving across the stone floor toward the steps, leading to a line of closed shops. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the most obvious starting point – a large wooden gate, small enough to open alone.

Walking across to it, he put a hand atop it, ready to push one door aside when he froze, gawking at what he saw; his hand had a glove on. He was wearing his usual garb from the Digital World, convincing him entirely that he was in the very place, and just needed to begin moving.

With a newfound strength and resolve, he pushed the gate open just enough to slip through, pushing it closed behind him. Now he was looking at the second floor of a shop and beyond that a larger gate, a small sign obscured by the chimney; perhaps it would tell him where he was.

Working his way down the steps that led down and around to the front of the building, he took notice that the lights were on, and yet nobody was stood outside, even though it still appeared to be early in the night, the stars dull and few in the glinting sky above.

'Veemon?' he questioned, heading down a final set of steps. A statue-like postbox was to his left as he descended them slowly, the painted face the only one in sight. 'Veemon, you there?'

'You shouldn't wander – night is coming.'

Spooked, Davis felt his feet leave the ground a little as he jumped and turned around to see who was behind him, atop the steps; a young, beautiful woman with large and wise teal eyes looked down at him.

'Who are you?'

'My name is Aerith,' she said in a voice as sweet as honey and smooth as silk. 'Listen to me, the streets aren't a safe place to be. There're Heartless around.'

He cocked an eyebrow high; unsure that he had heard her correctly, he tried to summon polite words for reply. 'Sorry, but I think I heard you wrong. I thought you said "Heartless".'

Now she lifted an eyebrow, 'Yes. You do know about Heartless, don't you?'

He scratched the back of his head and smiled with challenge.

'Oh, I see!' she clapped her hands together. 'You're new to Traverse Town, aren't you?'

He snapped his fingers and pointed at her, 'Bingo!'

'Well, then it is important for you to get somewhere safe until morning…' she pulled a fist to her cheek in thought. 'The hotel's a no-go. Too many come up there… maybe Cid can fit you into his shop, since he's been blocked off from his house.'

'Right,' he said, his mind blank and improvising, 'so, can we talk at this place? I wanna know why there's some random person in the Digital World.'

'Digital World? Did you hit your head fleeing from Heartless?'

'Listen, it's really important that I get out there and find my friends – they're human like us,' Davis said urgently, climbing a few steps. 'There's Kari, Tai, Joe, Cody, Ken, Yolei-'

He stopped dead in place at her name, the anger he had felt lost in the uncertainty of his arrival clouding his thoughts. Whatever means the Digital World had used to bring him here didn't concern him, but Yolei's constant yelling at him got on his nerves, even for the slightest things in the most desperate of situations, like bumping his head on a railing in a flooding underwater complex to pass the time or keeping a secret for his friend who she happened to be sweet on…

It brought a rise in his stomach just to imagine finding Yolei right now. Every second away from _her_ was a blessing.

'Well, I need to find… my friends,' he revised, 'see, they were swallowed by this black thing and then I woke here, so they should be here too, right?'

'Well, friends are never far apart if they believe they'll meet each other again,' Aerith said serenely, beckoning behind her. 'As for Cid, he has this place for his store, making it easy to move safely at night when they come. I have to go now, so I'll see you another time, maybe.'

She said this, but she did not move, and her face grew fixed with concentration, making a terrible awkwardness grip at Davis.

'S-something wrong?' he croaked.

She leaned in slightly, examining him, 'You look slightly familiar… spiky hair… jacket and shorts… hmm, maybe I imagined it… but just in case, you've got to tell me your name, okay?'

With her brown hair and strong yet kind eyes, Davis saw a flash of an older Kari before him, bringing a smile and answer to him lips. 'It's Davis.'

'Davis – that's a strong name,' she giggled, beginning to walk her own way. 'Sorry about before, you look similar to someone I think I knew once.'

'Th-that's okay!'

But she was gone, rounding the corner before he managed to speak, colour and heat rising into his face when he realised how uncool he must have looked. Tai would be ashamed if he could see how his protégé had failed to talk to a stranger very well.

Then he realised his blunder of not speaking pointedly and pressing her about how she was in the Digital World when it had been sealed off. Davis chuckled when he remembered her mention of "Heartless" rather than Digimon and began to walk across the grounds toward the large gate before him, another to his left looking ungainly and worn and had what looked suspiciously like dents and claw marks in the wood.

Casting his attention to what was before him, he looked to the sign above the gate, aged yet legible.

_Farewell,_

_Traverse Town wishes you well  
on the journey to your home, wherever it may lie._

Traverse Town… the many tales of Tentomon barely retained any space in Davis's mind, as back then he had cast him out whenever possible, so he was unsure if a journey to Traverse Town was one of his stops in his seemingly world-tour.

Davis lifted his hand and placed it upon the gate, feeling its weight with the slightest exertion of his strength. He pressed harder, but it still didn't yield. He wondered if perhaps it had been locked. Judging by the time, Davis pondered the idea of staying at this "Cid's" until it was light and they unlocked the gate. Even more curious to him was why humans were in the Digital World, adults, at that, while he had been sealed off from it.

He turned around, stroking his chin in thought and began to wander back toward the shop when he was brought to a halt by something obstructing his path; a curious little creature of nefarious black, with a metal helmet through which large yellow eyes peered up at him. It was doing a strange little dance on the spot.

'A Digimon?' he thought aloud, unable to hide his jubilation at seeing one for the first time in two years. 'Hey, little guy, what's your name? Is it Shadowmon or somethin' like that?'

It said nothing, but continued its little jig on the spot, unblinking.

'Um,' Davis stepped forward, 'are you okay?'

Again, it said nothing and didn't blink, a metallic rattle coming from its helmet as it danced faster on the spot.

_Davis!_

He stopped dead at the call in his head. Warmth filled his chest at the voice he had come to love so deeply.

'Kari?'

The creature had halted its dance at once, the rattle fading with it as it stared for a moment, Davis stationary and trying to locate Kari to no avail. A great sadness filled him with this, and then the creature began jumping and waving its skinny black claws around.

With pops of darkness, several of its like surrounded Davis with the same dance circling around him like some tribal rite of passage, filling Davis with a deep sense of dread for whatever they were doing, the rattles united into one infuriating and scary note, like a heartbeat.

And then, it stopped. They all jumped in toward him, black shapes getting closer and grasping his arms and legs. They had a great cold about their touch Davis hated in an instant, and with struggle, he tried to shake them off, but they were heavy and clingy.

'Get… urgh… gerroffa…'

He was losing his sense of time. Everything was swimming before his eyes and he could feel himself losing something precious, pulling from his heart specifically. He felt himself fall to his knees, the black creatures massing around him and making him feel like he was trapped within an igloo.

_Davis, don't give in!_

There it was again, in the darkness around him, there was that echo of her sweet voice in his head. He feared that he was losing himself to be hearing it, but there was a peculiar warmth in it. Desperately he focussed upon it, intent on easing the cold bite these creatures and their touch were giving him even the slightest bit.

And then, they unlatched themselves all at once and jumped away, leaving him to gasp for breath he had been denied. They did not disturb him for the moment, his fear and rage giving way to his will to survive. He tried to concentrate on the strength left in his legs, being a decent sprinter from soccer training naturally, he felt a desperate but sound relief and readied when he spotted it, clutched in his hand as though always there.

It looked like a sword, but the blade was instead rounded like a small pipe would be, and at the end was a black scythe-like curve. It was completely black and had the shape of a-

'Key?' Davis asked himself, lifting it up to inspect it and rising to his feet; it was as light as a feather, but looked heavy for a fully-grown man to struggle with carrying. 'What is this thing?'

The shadows stirred with their dance, but did not approach again. Catching onto the general gist of it, Davis pointed the strange weapon's tip at one, watching it lean away in the middle of its dance. Without hesitation, he swung it between two of them, making them separate and making a break for it, the rattling of their helmets slow to follow after him.

He planned in his haste to simply go to the gate at the back of the district and seal himself off from them, but a shadowy mass popped to life before him at the turn. Deciding to trust this "Cid" all of a sudden, he looked, but another popped before the doors of the shop.

He turned the other way, the rattling shadows giving chase as he ran without thought into a back alley, the wall at the back solid wood. Panting, he turned to face his pursuers, who were inching closer to him, while he inched further and further back until, a full, tense minute later, he bumped into the wall, and thus the end of his rope, in a sense, and he knew it.

Fear gripped at his heart at the thought of one of those shadows touching him with their frosty bodies. If they massed around him, he wasn't sure he would survive. No Digimon was this cruel, not after they had cleansed their world…

He looked at the sword in his hand and then back to the shadows, sweat beading at his face. Through his fear, he knew that if he was to survive…

One leapt at him stupidly, rattling and dancing in the air.

On instinct, he dragged the sword across its chest, the shadow erupting like black water and vanishing.

Davis's mind jammed; if they didn't turn into data, and they weren't Digimon, what could they be?

Where these the Heartless Aerith had warned him about moments ago? Why hadn't he listened to her and gone in the shop? Was Yolei right in calling him an idiot after all?

_That's rich; an idiot like you saying something mature like that!_

They all jumped toward him at once, blackness darker than the night sky falling closer and closer toward him. With an ungraceful and desperate swing that made him fall back against the wooden wall, Davis cut them all with the odd sword in his hand.

Smoke fell on him, dark and cold as winter's mist. Once it was gone, he breathed again in relief – they were gone. They couldn't hurt him. A weight lifted from his chest with each breath.

And then he cast a glance to what was in his hand beneath his face, staring at it as he rose to his feet once again, stumbling slightly.

'What is this thing?'

He turned it over carefully, afraid of the sharp spike at its tip. Then, all of a sudden, it erupted into flame before his eyes, his fingers uncurling from the handle on instinct while it faded into the wind. Davis blew needlessly at his fingers, trying to cool a burn that was not even there, much to his astonishment.

'Incredible,' someone applauded, clapping their hands at him. Looking around frantically for the source, he looked up and found them sat upon the guttering of Cid's store, looking down at him. 'Truly, it was an impressive showing.'

It was a boy, but it was difficult to make him out against the night sky…

And then, eyes wide, Davis watched as the boy jumped down from the roof and landed on the ground, rolling safely and assuming a walking pace as though it were nothing. But that physical impossibility was nothing compared to the nonsense before him.

Like a mirror, he was watching himself walk toward him, hair, clothes and smile all the same as him, only his hair being black and clothes being dark and with a bigger furred collar on his jacket being the difference. He didn't find it in him to speak, confused beyond all measure.

'What's the matter?' the boy smiled. 'Not going to make a crack about how handsome you must look?'

'Wha- but… you look like me!'

'Nothing gets past you, I see. I should know, I _am _you, for all intents and purposes.'

Davis pointed, offended, 'I wouldn't talk like that!'

'Dear me,' the boy who looked like him shrugged, '_nothing_ gets past you…'

'Shut up!' Davis shook his hand angrily, so lost and desperate for answers. 'Why do you look like me? What were those things? What was that sword-thing?'

The boy didn't reply, smiling more broadly.

'Answer me!'

'Shut up… answer me…' the boy said to himself. 'Which one should I do? Decisions, decisions.'

With a flush of fury, Davis slashed at the boy with the sword, missing him as he jumped back with ease and raised an eyebrow at him. It was only then that Davis recognised that the sword was in his hand again, dancing embers coming from it's the black tang.

'So, you are the Fury,' the boy that wore his face said in deep consideration, confusing Davis once again. 'Not mine to start quarrel with, after all.'

Mind blank, he aimed the sword between him and the boy's chest, hoping that he didn't see him for being as feeble as he felt. Sweat beaded at his face just from the gesture.

'Get that away from me, or you'll regret it,' he said fearlessly back at Davis. The air seemed thick with danger, and not from the one holding the blade, and Davis knew it. 'I don't intend to hurt you unless you force my hand.'

'Give me answers,' Davis said as bravely as he could. 'Who are you?'

'A servant of the world,' he picked at the sword's length and placed it away from his chest in a manner that one would a worthless trinket. 'It is not for _you_ to know _my_ name.'

'What does that even mean?'

Trying to threaten his look-alike, Davis swung the sword dramatically as he spoke, but something flashed in those hollow replicas of his eyes, and in a moment, he felt a deep pain in his stomach, having been delivered the very sole of his duplicate's boot into it with enough force to ridiculously make him crash feet back into and down the unyielding wooden wall.

'Need to know basis,' the boy's footsteps closed in on Davis, but all he felt was a ringing in his ears, pain in his stomach and hazed perception of the ground he lay upon. 'Once you recognise that your heart asked for solitude, the sooner you'll come to understand it for yourself.'

Davis spat, rejecting the air that caught in his throat with rapid wheezing.

'I guess you'll need to be placed at the starting point. Traverse Town should be hers, but I suppose we can't guess at every little detail now, can we?'

Recovering himself, Davis swung at the boy with the sword, missing him as he bounded easily back. Davis was silently relieved he had not done something regrettable, but at the same time, he was so angry…

Pain etched its existence into his chest, his heart feeling like it was at the mercy of a chisel. Davis was pained and confused deeply by the sudden pain that did not subside for several minutes. They boy with his face merely stood a distance away, watching during the one second reprieve before pain struck again at his heart.

'I wouldn't get lost in your anger,' the boy suggested indifferently. 'Hearts can be stronger than diamonds, or as weak as paper. You'd do well to remember that,' the boy cut off with what was a short, almost amused gasp. 'Well, well. I had best be off.'

There was a pop, Davis looking up against the pain that urged him to stay still and saw darkness vanishing into thin air.

His eyes began to lose their light, his mind numbing at the pain in his chest. It was far worse than the occasional sting of pain he felt, one he had adjusted to living with. His ears began failing, everything sounding like it was beneath water to him, the wind sounding almost milky and thick to his ears. The only other sound was some hammering across from him, but he fell into darkness before he could see who or what was making the racket.


	3. Sora's Light I

**A/N: **With the heart lost in the fright of the night, embrace love, for the heart's greatest might is in that bright light.

**SORA**

* * *

'Where are we?'

'Sora, I love you, but please stop asking that.'

She pouted, 'Well, I'm sorry.'

His handsome features softened, a rare occurrence, but one that made her heart flutter when his mouth tightened into a smile.

'No… I'm sorry, Sora,' he said sweetly. 'It's just… we've been pulled into the Digital World, but we can't find them. Two years is too long…'

'Do you remember what I said?' she reminded him, shaking a finger educationally. 'We need to get this off our chests, here and now. If the restaurant proved anything, it's that we're all falling apart,' she felt a great sadness anchor her heart, still like a stone. 'We've been through too much… to just hate each other.'

'Well, I know one thing for sure.'

Sora looked to him in wonderment, lost as to how anything could be certain.

'I'm glad that I got to know you guys at all,' Matt said, 'and as long as I remember that, I'll never hate you or the others.'

Sora couldn't help but smile, the heavy pull she felt within her lightening, those familiar butterflies fluttering within her stomach, all because he was there with her. Years ago, when they first met, she would have thought love was something years away from mind, and just the thought about it was enough to make her queasy. But now, she was grown and understood the gift it really was.

She saw his face, and then looked away, red-faced, her eyes slow to take notice of a portion of the Digital World she had not before seen.

She remembered ancient temples from books and photographs she had seen, standing tall but worn with vines and ivy twisting around and bridging great distances between them, the thriving city beneath it giving no inkling of how old and dilapidated it truly looked.

Dots moved beneath the rock outcrop they had walked up like a gentle slope, the city grand, but not as amazing as what swirled above; water domed around the city and onto the tops of catacombs behind them. Air bubbles frothed like clouds. It was spectacular to behold.

'Where do you think this is?' Sora whispered. 'I know we didn't see _all_ of the Digital World, but… why were we pulled here?'

'My best guess is that they've probably started kingdoms or something,' Matt screwed his face up, apparently mouthing words to try and remember. 'Well… I think that Gabumon said they might do this, y'know, after we left.'

'That'll make directions easier, I guess…'

'How d'you figure that, Sora?'

She shrugged, smiling brightly. 'Well, hope's got to start somewhere. Once we find Gabumon and Biyomon, we'll be able to find the others quicker.'

'And Agumon.'

Sora frowned, feeling the bitter bite of resentment within her and taking notice of the boy's face, the one she had known since childhood, and the one that had been acting coldly toward her lately.

'I didn't know he was such a wuss,' Matt joked, but Sora's heart was still blackened by anger for the restaurant they were in not long ago. 'Hey, c'mon, we were all pretty hot-headed. I broke before he did, remember?'

He jerked his back, Tai limply climbing higher on his back. Matt had been carrying him without complaint for around an hour while he and Sora tried to work their way out of the catacombs. The once arrogant leader of the Digidestined had regained his old clothes, as had they, but unlike them, he still had the immaturity that caused them so much grief on previous ventures into the Digital World.

'I said I'd slap him until he woke up,' Sora reminded him bitterly.

'Like I said, it wasn't his fault that time. It was mine.'

'Then for the other times!' Sora protested hotly. 'How about for when he nearly got me and Izzy caught in Etemon's pyramid? Or when he was a jerk at Whamon's funeral? Or how about last week, when he tried to get me to go to his soccer match when I'd told him you and I were going shopping, then got mad about it?'

'He probably has his reasons,' Matt said too reasonably, making Sora feel a simpleton. 'Besides, we're not perfect. I started that argument and you yelled at him when he tried to calm everyone down.'

'Whatever,' Sora mumbled, knowing there was sense in what he was saying, but not wanting to admit it so soon after being called a 'tomboy'. She knew she deserved it, but he knew how small it made her feel and used it anyway. 'How's your cold doing?'

'Gone,' Matt said, making a movement to indicate his chest, Tai interfering with that by nearly falling from his back. 'Well, you get the point.'

'Want me to take him for a while?'

Matt blinked thrice at her.

'What?'

'Well… look, I don't want you to take this the wrong way but… could you actually manage?'

Sora puffed out her chest. 'Of course I can! How rude is that!'

Matt paused, his eyes searching her for a few short seconds before he lowered to a knee carefully. 'C'mon then, if you're sure. But we should really get a move on for this city. Maybe they can give us directions, like you said.'

Sora smiled when he winked at her, her stomach tying in knots within her; she had particularly loved that part about Matt, the part that Tai desperately needed to get: he trusted people, and he never insulted them without a reason, that reason mostly being, yes, Tai.

'C'mon, show me how a real man carries an unconscious friend.'

Although he had that devious side Sora bitterly had to love, despite the flush it brought her to, conflicted between laughing and screaming at him. She got to a knee beside him, Matt helping her to ease and stretch Tai's leg over her back whilst he crawled forward, careful to place him on Sora's back entirely, stepping up before her and making her feel small with an appreciative nod, one that said he had been tired by it and he saw their little switch as a job well done.

Why was it Sora could see all of his faces and still think him perfect?

She shook her head, clearing the light clouds in her mind.

Now Sora felt flustered for another reason; she tried, but was barely lifting off of the ground – she was disappointed, having bet on tennis to have given her the strength for it, but Tai was like a boulder upon her back. He wasn't fat or greatly muscular, so it brought about the sting of truth about her gender, the one she hated; she simply lacked the strength Matt did.

'Problem, gigantor?' Matt japed, offering a hand down to her which she reluctantly took, wresting all of Tai's weight to one side as she rose and readjusted him upon her back. 'Sora, not to sound a bit of a jerk, but are you sure you can-'

'I can do whatever you can,' Sora said strongly, silencing him. 'Although he is really heavy…'

'Kari wasn't kidding – how much did he eat in the restaurant?'

'Never mind that,' Sora whispered beyond the strain to stay upright. 'I don't like that we just left the bill, whatever happened.'

Matt smiled that sweet smile again.

'Don't worry about it so much. The band's practicing real hard for that festival, remember – the cherry blossom one?'

Sora thought on it. 'You'd really use your money from that?'

'You guys are my friends, and you're very special to me.'

How could he dare to say such things so loudly? Sora felt faint from the very idea, her legs quaking beneath her from the shock.

'Easy, easy!' Matt grabbed her front and Tai's back, steadying them. 'Man… are you totally-'

'Matt, I love you, but get moving already.'

He lifted his hands defensively and walked slowly by her as they tread down the outcrop's slope, Sora's feet aching after two minutes of walking toward the city that got larger and larger as her trainer shoes from years past, even if a little bigger, were being stomped into the rocky ground, Tai's weight like a penalty for a great crime. She was already slick with sweat, but nearly dropped Tai when she absently tried wiping her face, unbalancing him.

Once again, Matt jokingly steadied them, but to her vast relief, he had noticed and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping her face relatively dry. Once again he asked, and once again Sora flared defensively, saying it was no trouble, and so they carried on.

'So, Sora,' Matt slowed once again to her mercilessly slow pace, wiping her face free of sweat. 'Joe got me wondering; what'll you do once we graduate?'

Honestly, he had caught her completely off-guard, as the thought of it before had always made her melancholy and sad, prompting her to put it out of her mind. As a matter of fact, she sighed when the memory of her mother complaining about it that very morning came back. She simply shook her head, mindful of her childhood friend with the attitude problem as he slumped down her back a little.

'Well… I'm not really all that sure. Mom's told me that her flower shop'll always have a place for me, but she says it'll be a final option only. She wants me to decided and try for what I want.'

Matt smiled, 'Your mom's a smart lady. You shouldn't ever give up on what you want, Sora.'

'You are so not trying to bring the band into this, aren't you?'

'I'm serious!' he defended onerously, dramatically flailing his hands at the same time. 'I mean, the band is great and all, but… I want something to do with science; it's always been my best area, like Izzy has computing or whatever it's called.'

That was true – Sora could tell by the little jog of her memory that whenever she had seen Matt studying at school, it was always one of the three sciences, and he was sure to read them like novels, something Mimi would have found irksome if she still went to school with them, but Sora loved; perhaps it was the _intelligent_ type she liked…

The thought felt like fire, her face erupting into a fiery red.

'I'm not like you,' Matt said silkily, helping her stay upright again. 'You're perfect at everything. Home Ec., science, math… not to be a jerk, but I hope there's anything you're bad at, because I feel a little inferior over here.'

Sora smiled happily, completely forgetting her duty to hold Tai and momentarily loosening her hold of his legs, distracted and exhausted, letting him slip and finally fall to the ground behind her, the force pulling her over and on top of him.

'Tai, I'm so sorry!'

She twisted her body off of him, looking down upon his face; it was not awake. The fall had done nothing, and his eyes remained sealed loosely, as though he were in a deep sleep. His breaths were slow and shallow, his chest rising and falling in relation…

Why was she noticing all this?

When she heard Matt's foot step beside her, she pulled away from Tai, falling onto her backside sluggishly, breathing heavily and embarrassed of the look she could not wipe from her face. She got the same look when her mother walked into her room unannounced. Why would she wear it now?

'Tai?' Matt sounded distant, taking no notice of her stupidity and lightly slapping his face, letting her compose herself. 'Tai? Hey man, this isn't funny. Wake up already.'

Sora crawled over, uncaring of the gravelly scraping at her knees. 'Tai, come on. Joke's over. We get it, you got out of walking and it was very impressive.'

Her attempt at humour was more for herself than anything, but he still did not stir. She felt a rising panic in her chest and cursed herself, slapping him a little harder than Matt was, yet all that did was bring sore redness to his face.

'Tai!'

Matt grabbed her by the wrist when she went to do it again, shaking his head. She felt tears sting at her eyes, the pandemonium, panic and fear from when Tai and Agumon vanished in the desert resurfacing and trebling in an instant.

'He'll be fine,' Matt said, though his voice left much to be desired. 'I mean, he's come back from worse. You know him better than any of us, right?'

'Yeah,' Sora sniffed, knowing that he was right – he was more stubborn than the average person, she grew up in that truth. 'I know, but still… why isn't he waking up?'

Matt stared down at his face, and then a look Sora dreaded came back – _uncertainty_.

'Worst case scenario,' Matt said slowly and gently to her, making her feel a little better, 'is that he might have hit his head when we got here. All the other times we came to the Digital World, we were falling. Maybe he just ran out of luck.'

'"Ran out of luck-!"' Sora felt herself choke up.

'Don't cry,' he said urgently, working Tai's limp form back into a piggy-back once more with ease and haste. 'Let's get him to the city. Quickly, all right? No lagging behind with needless crying – he'll be fine. Promise.'

They turned to begin their way to the looming city, cast with vines and decadence when Sora felt her heart leap into her throat, nearly prodding into the point of a makeshift spear, which she gathered as sharp rock tied to a wooden stick before the shock of what held it became clear.

'To koros ven mienthros? Tara colos mo nemenk ra?'

'Yet nolos ven mienthros takalas…'

'To koros, nyet takalas!'

People.

People in the Digital World other than themselves or the other Digidestined. More than that, they were certainly not children or teenagers, but had a strong air of nomadic people that had been there long.

They had bronzed skin and rich, supple skin and muscle, a group of women and men together in blue garb that covered only their necessary areas decently, with large masks on, carved with threatening, simple images like a demon upon them.

Perhaps a tribe?

They went on at each other in their own tongue, Sora frozen in horror, afraid to breathe with the spear's tip at her throat. Matt had one to his, but his eyes were only for her safety, which gave her enough strength not to cry out in terror as she felt like doing inside.

'M-M-M-Matt… I'm…'

'I know,' he whispered, his voice still strong and without fear. 'I know. Don't be scared. I'm with you, Sora.'

The people made her gasp and feel the prod of the rock's tip at the ball of her throat, their masks turned to face them with false, tribal eyes. What they were thinking behind the masks was beyond her, and quite frankly, rational thought was, too. She was scared, and that was all she was.

'You speak Milo's tongue?'

A woman spoke to them, her hands loosening about the spear's spine. The others did the same, but Sora's eyes were all for the one still inches from her throat.

'Where are you from? Speak now! _Tara colos mo nemenk ra_!'

The woman pointed at them like intruders within her home, which Sora figured they were, her misting eyes flitting to Matt's expression, and she knew through the special link she had with him that he thought the same, and so he spoke, arms wrapping around Tai's legs nervously, nearly upsetting his balance.

'We're from… the surface,' Matt said this with his eyes darting between her and the watery sky above and then back to her. 'We… we're… our friend here needs help… can you help us with him?'

The woman might have hesitated, as she slowly retracted the spear of the one with it pointed over Sora's throat, letting her breath a tad easier, though her heart was still stuck in it. Then she grasped her mask and pulled it off, revealing herself a kindly looking woman with blue markings under her eye and a glinting blue crystal dangling from her necklace.

'What are your names?'

'I'm Matt,' he said, looking to Sora urgently, but she couldn't manage it, her throat seizing up. 'And this is Sora – the most precious person to me.'

The woman eyed him crookedly, suspicious. 'And your friend?'

'This is Tai.'

She walked over casually and inspected him with an inquisitive look. Matt didn't dare to twitch as she did so, Sora assuming he gathered what she had; this woman was the leader.

'I am Kida,' she said slowly. 'You shall come with us and we shall inspect your friend.'

'Right…' Sora managed, breathing heavily. 'Where are we, anyway?'

'This is Atlantis,' Kida said, making a gesture, the others removing their masks and retracting their spears, bowing in greeting. 'You are the first visitors in a long time. Milo and I sealed the entrance long ago.'

'Why?'

'It does not matter,' Kida said quickly, nodding in the direction of the ancient city. 'Atlantis is welcome to you.'

'But why'd you seal it if we're welcome?'

Kida's face turned quickly into a scowl.

'Never mind,' Matt corrected. 'Do you think you can help Tai?'

'We shall see. Come.'


	4. Izzy's Abstraction I

**A/N: **Whilst ignorance is bliss, knowledge eliminates the need for bliss. However, bliss in knowledge can conversely lead to even deeper ignorance.

**IZZY**

* * *

'Joe, where are we?'

There she went, yet again, with such an intrepidly stupid question – how was he supposed to know?

Joe stood there, his face screwed up in thought, hand stroking his chin as he looked up at the castle before them, unlike any of its kind, Izzy had to note.

'This isn't exactly like anything I've seen before, Mimi,' Joe reprimanded in that gentle, polite manner he had. 'My guess is that we're in the Digital World, but Gomamon never told me of anything like this.'

'Tentomon didn't mention it either.'

Mimi must have not heard him, continuing to question Joe. 'Palmon's never talked about any, and she said that the Geckomon Castle was the first she'd actually seen. I think this might be a part of the Digital World we haven't seen before.'

Izzy felt like slapping his forehead, wanting to call her a genius. A noise must have escaped through his nose, because she flashed him a very dark, very red and quite pouty look indeed. Even then, she had the charisma and look of someone you just couldn't affix blame to. He found it deeply intriguing, personally. Yet all too soon, she returned her eyes to Reliable Joe.

'Maybe we should go in and get the help of the Digimon,' she was saying in a tone that played her clumsiness to its limits on what Izzy knew had to be on purpose. 'But what do you think?'

Was he being a nuisance, he wondered, withdrawing into his own thoughts to dull out conversation of the two. Be it arguing or unwanted chatter, he couldn't hear them, thinking of the binary code for a Digimon in his head. It was a useful trick he had picked up when he reached high school and his status as a genius earned him scorn from the more… dullard of his classmates. They could not disturb him now, and Mimi's looks would not catch him out – he was too happy in his thoughts. Let her make a mule of herself, he thought.

Yet he still had to _see_ her, talking to him… what was this? It was strange…

To distract himself, he looked up at the castle itself; shrouded with mystery was how such a thing could stand with many turrets standing from the walls like mere protrusions on a wall or vines growing beside a wall. Then there was the castle, embossed with a gargantuan insignia, carved into the otherwise mechanical castle, complete with piping: a heart insignia with two sprouting tails. The castle seemed twisted by large, serpentine pipes and a horrid colour of rust.

Yet Izzy had the feeling the castle was not welcoming, even without these signs.

Behind him, a pulley and large cart waited like an ancient elevator down to a rushing waterfall, shaped like a crater beneath the castle. He could see this with the briefest of glances over the edge. Mimi and Joe took no heed of this, the older boy either lost in thought or oblivious to Mimi's questions.

'Maybe we should go inside,' Izzy felt like suggesting, if not to just get somewhere away from where he had fallen into the Digital World. 'We're not getting anywhere out here, Joe, Mimi.'

Two years seemed intolerable, but now that he was actually there, he just felt empty, apathetic and even lethargic; the disaster in the restaurant made one thing clear, and that was that his childhood was fading away, and all of those magical years he had never thought possible would be swept away when he went to university and began teaching in Kyoto – it was his one dream that still seemed real. The other had been his friends forgiving each other for silent grudges, but that hope was lost to ash – the restaurant debacle made that resoundingly clear to him.

Clearing his head and escaping his brief reverie, Izzy led on toward the large gates that allowed entrance into the old, mechanised castle. Approaching hesitantly despite how long-since abandoned it appeared, Izzy placed a hand upon the gates, which opened by themselves, revealing a grand foyer to him and Joe, Mimi trailing behind, quiet for some reason.

'Well, these people weren't hard for money,' Izzy commented in his poor attempt at humour.

'It _is_ a castle,' Mimi responded a little forcibly. 'This is nothing – Joe, you remember, right? The Geckomon Castle?'

'Yeah,' Joe mumbled, Izzy looking back to find a very distant look upon the elder's face, intent focus in those eyes, seemingly magnified by his glasses. 'Say… I know this is supposed to be abandoned and all, but don't you think it's a little… well-kept?'

Scanning the foyer, Izzy saw that he was right – compared to the dismal upkeep of the castle's exterior, stone steps curved about to the second story rather neatly, a fountain between the steps flowing with pure water – not an everyday feature of abandoned castles, and something which bite coldly at the nape of his neck; could it be that the castle had Digimon in it?

In particular, a rather large insect that spoke relentlessly about how he travelled the Digital World frequently?

Mimi beat him to calling out, 'PALMON!'

Her voice echoed, and once it faded, Izzy heard muffled struggles behind him. Worried, he spun around; he was rather disappointed to see Mimi struggling against Joe's silencing hand over her mouth. He looked rather worried, much like how Izzy felt.

'Mimi – Myotismon had a castle, remember?' he whispered cautiously, eyeing the ceiling in a paranoid manner. 'Let's not make a fuss in case we're in a bad guy's castle, alright?'

Izzy couldn't help but agree, having considered the same thing – not that silencing her was something he would really, truly do. Then again, it was intriguing that Joe would suddenly be so brave. Almost as intriguing as the thing Izzy looked into the year gone by, both seemingly impossible and unlikely.

And just like the test, Joe disappointed, his face red and eyes on the floor, taking Mimi's heated scolding quietly. Izzy smiled and let a single note of laughter leave him. It felt so strange and forced, coming out more as a grunt. Frowning, he realised that he needed to practice laughing, if only to avoid feeling as awkward as he did now.

Mimi looked across to him, apparently taking his attempt at laughter as he feared. He turned instead to whistling to himself until at last Joe managed to recollect himself.

Walking across to the fountain, Joe slipped his fingers into the water, flicking it for some reason.

'It's so clear and so light – this is the cleanest water I've ever seen.'

'The viscosity of the water would suggest that its being pumped fresh and purified from those waterfalls we saw below,' Izzy said, believing he had simplified it enough, but Mimi made a face. 'I – er… well, pretty much the pipes gather water from below, Mimi. That means that someone must be keeping them clean and drinking the water – so in short, we're not alone here.'

Then she showed signs of understanding. How she managed to be academically borderline in the sciences, he didn't know. Why she couldn't have nodded and asked Joe as he knew she probably would, he didn't know; Mimi wasn't subtle or greatly clever, but Izzy had come to respect that in the Digidestined as much as Tai for his courage and Joe for his responsibility. Quietly, he knew that she wasn't as sincere as he crest would suggest.

'This is making my head hurt…' she moaned, thin fingers rubbing at her temples. 'Joe, tell Izzy to stop with the riddles and just tell us what he means.'

'Sorry, Mimi, but we need to find out where we are and if we can last here,' Izzy felt a strange pull inside of him, like he was nervous without knowing. 'Remember our first few months here? Joe and I rationed the food, so I can tell you now that we nearly starved. This time needs to be different.'

'He's got a point,' Joe said over to her from the fountain. 'We never told, but it got bad at times. Especially before that Yokomon village.'

Mimi put a finger to her lips, 'Hold on… Sora and I got food. It couldn't have been that bad.'

Joe focussed solely into the fountain's pool of water, his ears and neck bright red, not that Mimi noticed with her attempt to figure it out. Izzy felt a rise of amusement inside him, remembering how Joe insisted his food should go to the girls because of his moral maturity. Izzy considered it vanity back then, but now he was happy to say he knew Joe better than such simple thought processes.

'Hey, Joe – why don't we search this place?'

Joe grabbed to the offer like a lifeline, still hiding his face.

'That's a great idea – Mimi, are you coming?'

'Well… if you say so then I guess we might as well…'

Joe led the way with Mimi asking questions of him in rapid succession before the poor guy could answer any single one. Izzy shook his head as they reached the top of the steps, one large opening before them leading to a dark corridor, and doors to their immediate left. With a consenting nod, Izzy led onward to the doors, not liking the cold chill coming from the shrouded corridor.

He and Joe pressed their hands against both of the doors, pushing with all their might. Despite his effort, Izzy rued not being as strong as Tai, Matt, TK or Davis, seeing what the price of genius and constant development of his knowledge had left him as. Mimi cheered them both, but only used Joe's name in her supportive chants. She switched between Japanese and English chants, Izzy's ears perking up when the doors creaked slowly open.

She was chanting in English, '_Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate_? _Joe and Koushiro_!'

He was touched a little that his name was finally used, but it was not the one he would have preferred. The sudden rush from her chant gave him the boost he needed to fully push the door open with Joe managing the same. He panted, tired and hating the heavy doors.

'See, that wasn't so bad!' Mimi said sweetly, patting Joe on the back when he began coughing from the effort. 'There, there – I'm fine, see?'

'Y-you,' Izzy coughed himself, 'you didn't do anything…'

She braced her hands upon her hips, 'Excuse me – whose cheering let you open those doors? I should be charging, Izzy.'

'That's better,' Izzy took a deep breath, composing himself slowly. 'I hate it when people call me 'Koushiro'.'

'You – you heard that?' she actually sounded impressed.

'You do know that I'm good at more than science, right?'

'Yeah, but Joe's good at the science that helps people with medicine, so isn't that more impressive? Even gym seems more interesting than that stuff.'

He didn't know precisely what, but something bitter flashed within his chest.

'It's _biology_ – now can we get moving-'

He stopped dead in his tracks. It was like he had walked into a fountain of knowledge, becoming enlightened in a divine light – for what he believed was the first time, he found a library in the Digital World. All else flooded from him. He had dreamed about such a reservoir of information, so unlike Earth's…

He hurried inside, bookshelves stacked impressively high and filled with books and tomes thick enough to act as substitute cement blocks, all colour coded, the bookshelves forming a sort of path from the door, like a maze…

'Oh boy… of all things you don't want,' Mimi was saying behind him, 'a library. There's no way Palmon would be in a place like this.'

'How do you know that?' Joe queried while Izzy struggled to tug one of the heavy books from its shelf.

'I taught her better – princesses don't have to read,' she stated obnoxiously.

'That's… I… if that's what you think, Mimi, then… well…'

Izzy flipped the book's cover and looked at the first blank page, with some writing and annotations within it. 'Joe – you won't _believe_ what's in here.'

Joe and Mimi now peering over his shoulder, he looked over the drawings and neat little notes written beside it. Mimi made the cutesy noise he had feared she would make.

'That's so _cute_! Drawing a little heart in a book – I take back what I said about libraries – they're nice!'

'Mimi!' Joe hissed urgently over Izzy's shoulder. 'Remember, inside-voices only!'

'Lighten up, Joe!' she giggled mischievously. 'This place is like a ghost town!'

'Castle,' Izzy corrected snappily, feeling the book's weight upon one hand while he pointed at the text with the other and read. '"And so it is time for me to recognise that the heart is too complicated for a simple research project. I must become an active force to comprehend the workings of its power, if not to sate my curiosity, then to learn more of this tale, this Kingdom Hearts".'

Joe adjusted his glasses beside Izzy's face, squinting at the notes. 'How do you read that… isn't it in English?'

'You can read it too, Izzy?'

'Like I said, science isn't the only thing I study,' he said up to Mimi, feeling a strange pulling at his navel with her face so close to his. Cursing, he realised that his face was burning, squinting and hurrying on with turning the page. 'Well, well… what's this?'

From the book came a small, torn page of something. It resembled a report of some sort, stained and worn, but still legible.

_I have been a fool.  
I have sought out the heart and studied its nature, and yet it still is not enough.  
Knowledge sustains my interest in this world, but now it is like a dulling tonic, leaving me to  
lament my narrowness…  
This world, this Hollow Bastion is all but lost. Surrounding towns and villages of my master's once  
great civilisation has fallen to the darkness. Only the castle repudiates with the darkness that had  
wrought hearts to be lost to the chains of the blackest pit.  
Yet, I am left with one question that both spares and brings me trouble – have I been the cause  
for the castle's survival? Is the darkness testing me, or is this simply its way of liberating me of  
my vexations – the people who disturbed my research and forced me into hiding it  
as though it were shameful, something the master should have taken with him.  
Perhaps my approach needs broadening. This Hollow Bastion is nothing but a heartless  
shell, in a greater sense than any who come here will realise.  
I must wonder, however, what will need to be given as payment for my journey. Expedition  
or exodus for the world I theorise can be crafted into perfection, it is irrelevant.  
Whatever the price, I am willing to pay it in order to see just why the hearts is moulded of darkness  
and light._

_Ansem_

'Ansem?' Mimi repeated, eyeing the report with confusion. 'Isn't that… a person's name?'

'Well, it's certainly not Ansemon,' Joe added quickly, although Izzy doubted he could have read the report – it was penned in English. 'But… how can that be? Are their kids in the Digital World besides us? Another Digidestined, maybe?'

'No,' Izzy stated, closing the book and replacing it in the shelf carefully, the report still in his hand, 'there's about a million of us across the globe, true. But something feels off – all of us aren't adults yet – and this is written by someone very intelligent. Too intelligent to be our age – I could barely keep up with what they'd written, and not because of the language.'

'Mimi?'

She looked caught off-guard by Joe's sudden call, Izzy seeing something odd in her eyes, adding to his own unease.

'Sorry, I was just wondering.'

'About what?'

'Well, isn't it a little weird?' she pointed to Izzy's hand. 'From what I could actually get about it, it sounds like someone's been here for a long time. But, didn't Gennai say we were the first to come here?'

All three of them mulled on it, but something bit at Izzy's memory first.

'Wait, didn't he mention the Original Digidestined before we fought Apocalymon?' Izzy got a confused nod from the pair, seeing that he had to think on it alone. 'Well, in that case, could this 'Ansem' be one of them? It's the only real way I can see that someone else could have come to the Digital World. Maybe he was living here and got sealed inside when the worlds became separate.'

Mimi looked up at Joe pleadingly for an answer. 'Why do you think we're even in the Digital World if it's closed off to us?'

'Maybe it is,' Joe said suddenly, those uneasy feeling since arriving grabbing Izzy by the throat as he continued. 'Maybe this is another place entirely. Or maybe it is the Digital World. Whatever the case is, this Ansem should be able to tell us where we are.'

'Joe,' Mimi whispered sweetly, 'you do know that he would've notice us by now, right? Like you said, I was being loud…'

'Not loud enough for an entire castle,' Izzy pitched in, not wanting to accept the illogical idea that they were in a different world entirely. Yet, years ago, he would have denied the Digital World just as readily… he felt like an anchor was pulling his heart down into a black pit of despair at the idea. 'Joe… what about looking outside the castle?'

He felt stupid for asking it, but he needed something, anything, to use and think upon.

'Did you see anything outside?' Joe said logically, Izzy nodding even though he already knew the answer that was coming. 'Well, this Ansem person says that this castle's all that's left in there – going on that, shouldn't he be in this castle? You said that someone had to be here, taking care of the pipes; why not him?'

'Joe's got a good point,' Mimi said quietly, sounding a little nervous. 'Let's look around the castle for this Ansem person.'

'You can do that,' Izzy had already decided, placing the report delicately in his pocket. 'But I'm going to see if there are any more of his reports in here. It might give us a clue, at the very least.'

The pair looked at each other, but neither argued with him, Joe pointing out that there was a small terrace above where more shelves stood, saying that a door may await them up there. Izzy called for them before they disappeared into the maze of shelves, however, addressing that feeling he had since he and the others had arrived.

'Watch your backs – I don't think we're alone in this place, and I'm not talking about just this Ansem; there was enough water in that fountain for more than just one person, so be careful.'

He listened to their footsteps and voices disappear into the library-maze, his attention going on to another thick book that he pulled from the shelves.


	5. Tai's Awakening I

**A/N: **Courageous acts defy the laws of time and memory, but the person's heart is often plagued by reckless desires for gratification.

* * *

**TAI**

It felt as though his heart was being torn from his chest.

Heat and pain shot through his body from his chest, feeling more like a pit than anything else. He could feel himself falling, yet his voice did not allow him to scream, the pit within him taking that and returning pain for the effort. His eyes refused to allow the light in – he couldn't see anything. Beyond the pain, he joked in his mind about how he had been sent to purgatory for calling Sora a tomboy, mostly to calm himself as the pain slowly became lesser.

Even so, the joke struck like a small nail in his pained heart. Finally, he felt himself drifting off, his mind going misty and fogged by sleep.

But this bliss did not last long, Tai feeling himself pressed to something when he woke from his slumber, something soft beneath him, cradling. Opening his eyes, nearly blinded by the light, he found his bed beneath him, his blanket tightly wrapped about him as though he were a mummified pharaoh. Against the warm security of his bed and sleep, Tai struggled from it, nearly falling onto the wooden floor of his room.

How had he got there was beyond him – a question for tired and weary minds like his. He enjoyed this feeling usually after having been able to sleep and dream. He had many strange ones he held very dearly – ranging from Agumon pretending to be a model and then coming to life to a horrible one where he lived with all of his Digidestined friends, memorable because he beat Matt up in every single version of that one and win Sora.

Not that he would tell anyone _that_. Kari might have her little suspicions that she thinks she hides well, but not well enough.

Shaking his head free of these manacling thoughts, he looked about and got to the question of how he had gotten there, looking first to his computer that had so often pulled him into the Digital World two years ago, but with no luck.

He wandered over, imagining what Izzy would do and realising that going on the computer was not so strange. Perhaps the date would tell him that he had simply dreamt the entire thing. He pressed the power button of the computer, sitting at his messy desk and brushing several food wrappings aside as he waited, the whirring of the machine slow to pick up.

The light of the monitor flashed on, presenting him with the blue screen it usually got when it crashed, Frustrated, he began to hit it atop the head, wondering why it refused to work. Finally, the main screen came up, but not as he remembered it.

The icons and display were all gone, and confined within the screen was a wallpaper that was not his, but something strange – a sort of heart outline, but with an attempt to be awesome. He pondered how to correctly dispose of Kari for this later, feeling both bitter and embarrassed by it.

But the desktop icons were gone as well, and the clock was set to '00:00' with no movement of the seconds. He wondered if hitting it had broken it when some text appeared on the screen without warning within the confines of a white window.

_For the courageous hearts to join with friendly hearts, sacrifice is need, and the love to  
perform the act. The heart is spawned by the dark, yet courage is the light – dare you face  
your memories and reclaim what you have lost?_

'What's this?' he chuckled to himself. 'Kari and her hearts… _girls_.'

When he had read the text again to check this lunacy for meaning, a small message and two buttons appeared below it.

_Are you ready?_

_I'm ready for anything!_

_I think I need a minute…_

'Kari,' Tai shook his head, feeling exhausted by the message, 'are you being serious?' he looked to the mouse, moving it about, but nothing happened on the screen. Taken by a sudden urge, he rolled his eyes and pressed the top button in jest. 'Wonder what she's put on this thing.'

But the next thing he knew, he felt himself sucked into the computer, falling into blackness once more with the small window of light getting smaller as he floated downward. Confused, he barely noticed as his feet planted into the space, a solid grounding formulating from what looked like shards of glass of all things, gathering together beneath and around him in a sea of endless white.

'What the-?'

'_You're here_. _At last_.'

'Who's there?' Tai called out, finding that nobody was anywhere to be seen. 'What's going on?'

'_Don't be frightened – within the confines of your heart, no harm can come to you_.'

Tai pointed to his chest, feeling a little burn inside it, but maybe it was just heartburn from surprise or something – yes, that had to be it.

'_This is very real,_' the voice said from nowhere in particular. '_Imagine the thing you desire most, and it shall come to you._'

'Say what?'

The endless white burst about him like a balloon, and began twisting until finally it took shape as the Kamiya residence again, only that he was in the living room this time. But beyond his surprise, he immediately saw the intruders in his home, yet they were so vividly familiar it was unbelievable.

Sat on the couch, huddled together happily and watching a heated soccer match with a friendly but determined debate ensuing between them were three strangers, one a man with bushy hair, another a shorter woman with auburn locks and between them… he craned over their shoulders to see what they were both cradling…

A boy, small and frail, yet pointing and trying to dance when a goal was scored by what was clearly his father's team, the mother complaining and pouting in the way she always did…

Was he dreaming?

He stepped back, remembering the dividing factor between the possible reality before him, the family and room torn asunder like a photograph and the colour melting away and swimming around him.

'What… is this?' he stepped back again, but there was no footing – he struggled for balance. 'N-no… no, no, no… NO!'

He fell back into the sea of colour, struggling against the pull that dragged him further down, falling quickly into a shifting sea of dark and light until finally he bumped off of the ground softly, still winded by the shock and surprise that he had survived.

He turned and got to a knee, noticing what was beneath his gloved hand – like a stain-glass floor, it was bright, even when all around was black. Upon it was an image, although his perspective did not help him in working out what it was he was looking at.

The edges were rounded and far-reaching – perhaps a rooftop?

'_Your heart is lost in the chaos outside_,' the voice said from nowhere. '_Weakened by your doubt, it could not handle the strain that brought you from your home. As it is, your heart is lost, your body a cage and your very mind the prisoner_.'

'My heart's lost?' Tai almost felt like laughing as he clambered to his feet, but something about the entire setting around him suppressed it, and made him listen. 'So, what – I'm like Matt and Sora? They told me they were lost in some cave or something stupid,' he shuddered at the thought that sprung into his head at that. 'Gross… were they kissing then, as well?'

'_Do not doubt your friends. They struggle to keep the shell outside safe whilst you try and regain your heart here. There is such horrific scarring, and it may take time…_'

'Excuse me,' Tai waved at the dark overhead brightly. '"Scarring"?'

'_Scarring_,' the voice echoed. '_Your heart is strengthened by the courage it contains. Yet you are troubled by memories that you have ignored during your travels. These created the cracks that ultimately led you here, to this place of slumber and healing_.'

'So I'm not lost,' Tai snapped his fingers, smiling at the hole he found in the situation. 'I'm here in that thing you said-'

'_These memories must be faced, if you are to recover what is yours. Only acceptance of the pain will allow your body to regain what it needs. Are you ready?_'

'Er…' Tai scratched the back of his head, unsure. 'You want me to look at my _memories_? That's – well… nice an' all, but-'

'_Are you ready, or do you need a moment to prepare_?'

Tai groaned at the technique so like his mother's own to get an answer from him.

'Fine, whatever… do this… whatcha-ma-thingamy…'

'_Let us heal the pain and reclaim that courage so desperately needed in this perilous time_.'

'Say what?'

But the light flashed around him, blinding his eyes to what was happening. By the time he could see again, he was in a much different place. A place he sometimes dreamt of, but never spoke of. Not after what happened.

The tides rippled and churned calmly, the sun beating down upon the beach and its golden sand. But that was not the centre of attention – the large, motionless friend was, twitching fragilely like a new-born, the ghastly head-wound robbing him of his dignity, precisely as Tai remembered thinking when it had happened.

Whamon was beached, digital code breaking from his form like some form of smoke, his twitching becoming less and less…

'_This first scar was most painful. Your first experience of death – at least where you felt shame and pain for a fallen friend, not the rage that quaked in your heart when your sister's protector fell…_'

'Why are you showing me this?' Tai trembled with withheld anger, yelling at the sky, 'WHY?'

'WHY?'

The word echoed, but not in his voice. It was a small, tiny and broken voice, filled with choked sadness. He looked over to Whamon again, feeling pain double by the sight of his dying friend, and also by Mimi's quaking form, on her knees before him, he tears mixing in with the salty-water of the beach and sand.

Whamon twitched in a pathetic way – it was hard to see one so proud and strong and noble just die like this, let alone for a second time…

'Mimi… you've got to give him some space… he's a big guy…'

Joe had a hand on her shaking shoulder, one which wasn't shrugged off. His voice was broken, but with more reservation about his feelings. He had always been the introvert, but Tai had never seen his composure as broken as it was now. He didn't remember this part, if he was at all honest.

Had he ignored it, as the voice said?

Had he been that much of a jerk?

'Matt… what's happening to him?'

Matt and TK appeared, the little brother cuddling at his elder's knee unashamedly before the sight of death. He had only been eight… and yet he looked like he understood, full-well…

'TK, remember that he was a good Digimon. Never forget him. _Ever_. Do that and he'll never be gone. Got it?'

Stern as he had been then, Tai saw now that Matt's rough, unrefined brotherly-demeanour was an act, to hide his personal weakness from his dopey little brother. Tai was also older now – he knew that those words were a little harsh for an eight-year old kid's ears, but the meaning in them was deep. The boy nodded, and watched Whamon with silent sniffs and watery eyes.

Then Izzy and Sora appeared a little behind Joe and Mimi, the pair silently watching, not blinking. It was their own way, Tai supposed. They were both considerate to a fault, and did not want to disgrace Whamon's last moments with crying. How he understood was irrelevant – he just did.

And then Kari appeared, trembling from head-to-toe. She always acted like that when she was scared. It took a lot to break her, but Whamon's sacrifice was beyond reason or logical thinking – there was no room for watching while unfeeling. Her cheeks were watered by tears, her raggedy breaths the sign of cries she didn't give loudly, Mimi's the only ones filling the salty air around them.

Tai watched all seven silently as the digital code began breaking off into the sky, Whamon fading slowly but surely, Mimi inconsolably trying to reach him, but Joe's arms wrapped around her, holding her back. She fought, but didn't look. He watched calmly, but his eyes couldn't hide the pain behind his glasses. Tai could see it, clearer than he remembered.

And then, Whamon released his final words, words that still haunted Tai and the others in their anniversaries. It had been on his mind for a moment earlier that very day.

'Digidestined… save this world…'

'WHAMON!' a few of them shouted before realising as the giant whale vanished. The water twisted in a strong tide to fill the vacuum he had occupied, as though the ocean water was waving him off like an old friend. 'Whamon…'

Tai eyes began to sting, his throat constricting. He wiped at his eye when suddenly, he appeared, and time seemed to freeze in place.

He stood at the very front of the team, his eyes fixed upon the indent in the sand his friend had left, watching it slowly fill again under the tide. Tai couldn't believe what he saw – he spotted tears under his younger-self's eyes, but everyone was too distraught to notice or care. Matt, Izzy, Joe and Sora were the only ones like he was to regard the beach silently; their faces were strained or eyes watering. The pain of that day came back quickly, and so too did the memories of what he had thought that day in his sadness.

He saw it flash upon his younger-self's face – the pain, the realisation and the brave-face he knew he had to wear like a mask. It took a few moments, but he watched as he adopted the goofy grin, looking down at Kari by his side and holding her close while scraping and shifting filled the air.

Mimi moulded a dome atop the sand, grabbing something Joe handed to her – the two wooden sticks they used to make a fire sometimes. It had been with them, as he had. It was only fitting.

Mimi put them upon her knees and pulled a spare hair bobble from her dress, using it the tie the sticks into a cross. She placed it into the mound and clasped her hands in prayer. Nobody objected, nobody joined in – exactly as Tai remembered.

'Mimi, what're you doing?' his younger-self asked in at tone that hinted at strength he didn't feel despite being older. 'We need to get a move on…'

She did not respond or break the muttered prayer.

'Mimi…' Sora echoed, though she looked nonplussed in arguing. 'We need to move…'

But she ignored this and pulled two more bobbles from her pockets. Joe understood in that way he had, and spied four fallen branches of the trees that gave entrance to Puppetmon's forest. He returned with them, two more markers having been fashioned, and summarily completed with the crosses.

'That one's for Wizardmon,' she whispered weakly, Mimi's gloved finger shaking in the direction of each mound as she supplied a name, 'that's for Pixiemon, and this one's… this one's for Whamon…'

'Oh, Mimi…' whispered Sora, shutting her eyes tightly.

'I don't…' his throat felt parched all of a sudden, and he looked longingly toward the skies above. 'I don't remember it like _this_.'

'_When the heart is scarred, it tangles the chain of memories to create false memories that help it hide from deeper pain._'

'That so?'

'Mimi, c'mon,' Tai's younger-self was saying in a forceful but not ignorant way. 'We have to go.'

'Give her a minute, Tai,' said Matt. 'Just leave her alone.'

Matt's voice was icy, and Tai remembered exactly how he had felt by how his other was looking, foul realisation that Matt was an arrogant pencil of a singer even earlier than he had imagined had gone unnoticed until now.

'Oh, back off, Matt,' his memory said harshly. 'You know it too – we need to move. We don't have time for this stuff.'

He didn't think he had sounded unreasonable, only sensible. It was better leadership than any of the others were giving. And yet they all looked back at him darkly, even _Izzy_. Worst of all, Sora looked disgusted by the undeniable fact he had probably saved her life that day.

Mimi looked back at the double, but Tai felt those bold chocolate eyes burning at him through the tears. 'Just stop it, Tai!'

'Yeah,' Matt growled, suddenly plucking up the courage to respond when a girl was on his side. 'Stop pushing us! Who died and made you leader, anyway? Give us a minute to remember our friends!'

'I'm saying we have to go so that we can remember – because we won't have harpoons in our hides!'

Tai remembered that MetalSeadramon had an escort of fish-Digimon that did have harpoons.

'Tai, just grow up, will you?' Sora sniped cruelly, with that stupidly arrogant tone she got whenever she was around Matt. 'Seriously, don't you have a sensitive bone in your body? Be more like Matt and just calm down! It'll only take a minute!'

'Sora?'

Like the restaurant when he had been told to disengage, she had been wrong in him being wrong and Matt being right. He looked between the younger pair, seeing that there was something sparkling in their eyes that he had not seen before they were dating… had they been in love then, too?

Was that why she defended Matt and fought his battles in that annoying way she had?

He had always admired her strength, but remembering how she turned that against him, betrayed him even…

His younger's body cracked like glass and fell into the beach's sand, shards swept silently away by the tides while the scene dissolved around him, returning him to that strange tower's roof, crafted of stained-glass.

'_The first crack was made then. And if we align it with the others you have, it is no wonder your heart is broken… it is shattered, and only acceptance of truth will let you reclaim what it yours._'

'Why… why am I seeing this stuff?'

'_Only courage can guide others, but courage needs friendship. Hearts must unite, and battles must be waged together, not alone._'

'Friendship? You talking about Matt?'

'_You must choose. Will you face your memories and scars, or will you let your broken heart delude itself even longer, perhaps for all eternity in this place_?'

Again, it had used his mom's secret technique for making him do something.

'Fine. Let's get this other with already.'

'_Your path is chosen, as the path has chosen you_.'

There was a sharp 'pop' in Tai's hand, and a sudden weight he nearly failed to grasp in his surprise. In his hand was a black and red-trimmed sword, the end curling out into a twisting protrusion of flame, the tip of it round like a key.

'What's this thing?'

'_Your light_.'

Tai regarded the odd weapon with reservations, struggling against the weight bearing upon his wrist while wondering why he had been given the weapon at all. Then, from his nape, he sensed a dangerous cold, biting at him.

Twisting on the spot, he spotted a large shadow that twisted and wrapped about its own shape, growing without form, rather like some blight of living ooze. He backed away a pace and then several others when the shadow constituted itself before him as a tall, strong apparition, shaped like WarGreymon, the slits for where his eyes should be blindingly yellow and without spirit.

'_And now, you face the very darkness that has nested within the cracks of your shattered heart. Have courage._'


End file.
